Recent changes in todays housing industry has led to an increased desire by builders for using pre-manufactured, or fabricated, construction components. As example, builders are now able to use pre-manufactured building panels, for walls, roofs, floors, doors and other building components which lend themselves to a composite structure. Such components are desirable since they decrease greatly the time and expense involved in constructing new building structures. However, the use of pre-manufactured building components requires these components to meet the structural specifications necessary for the resulting structure. The structural specifications are typically based on three structural criteria that are of primary interest, i.e., load bearing strength, shear strength, and total weight. Additional criteria that may effect the desired specifications are fire resistance, thermal efficiency, acoustical rating, rot and insect resistance, and water resistance. In addition, it is desirable for pre-manufactured components to be readily transportable, e.g., lightweight, easily packaged, and easily handled.
Pre-manufactured composite components for building construction have in the past had a variety of constructions. A common component is a laminated or composite, panel. One such panel includes a core material of foam, or other insulating material, that may in some embodiments have vertical members for adding structural support. The core material is positioned between wood members and the combination fixed together, e.g., nailed, screwed, and/or glued together. These panels suffer from the disadvantages of being combustible as well as inadequate sound barriers. Further, these panels are subject to rot, decay, and insect attack. Accordingly, panels constructed in this manner are not deemed satisfactory in many modern building applications.
In a variation of the above-described building panel, a laminated skin is fixed to the outside of the wood members. In addition to the inadequacies discussed above, these panels suffer from the added disadvantage of being more expensive.
In another known construction for building panels, a foam core is positioned between metal members. Decorative material is typically bonded to the outside of the metal members to provide these building panels. These panels are expensive and suffer from the disadvantage of being very sound transmissive. As a result of their sound transmission properties, an inside wall is generally required to provide an acoustical barrier, thereby further increasing the cost of using these panels. Such panels are not generally suitable for load-bearing applications.
Concrete panels have been used as a base for laminating composite layers. Building panels, however, constructed with prior art concrete compositions result in a rough, often wet, surface having a lamination bonding quality that is difficult and inconsistent. As a result, laminated skin surfaces, such as veneer, phenolic, vinyl, etc., cannot be sufficiently bound to the rough surface of concrete panels without considerable secondary preparation. It is desirable, however, to be able to firmly and cost effectively affix to the building panels, laminated skin surfaces such as those discussed above. Accordingly, in addition to the lack of flexibility, high weight, and lack of insulating properties, these prior art concrete panels are further disadvantageous because of the inability to consistently affix laminated skin surfaces to the rough and/or damp surface of the concrete.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide building panels or other composite building components that are relatively lightweight and strong. It is further desirable to provide such a building component that is also a good heat and sound insulator. It is further desirable to provide such a building component that is also resistant to water, fire and rotting. It is also desirable to provide a building component having all of the foregoing properties, and which is easily handled and reasonably :priced. To accomplish these criteria across a wide range of applications, it is desirable for a manufacturer to be able to change weight versus size versus strength relationships readily. The above-cited popular constructions do not generally provide a natural method of changing size versus weight versus strength relationships over a wide dynamic range.